Twisted and Woven craft

Here I singled out woven and twisted wire art photos seen across the country. The Baskets are highly collectible and are from the ZULU tribe. BEWARE I have seen several that bare signs of import. One I looked at had a piece of Chinese new paper inside and another actually had a MADE IN VIETNAM sticker inside the cover. I don't want to say all are fake but Asia is very capable imitating this form of weaving. Some are ridiculously priced due to the knowledge of the seller that some have been auctioned off for very high amounts in Europe.
The woven plates, sadly to say, are often made with cables used by the telephone company and some of them are stolen from the public network, Copper theft is prevalent in South Africa due to the high price of the metal. but naturally I am sure the majority is made by honest crafters who buy their wire.They can be very intricate and take a long time to weave so do not expect them to be as cheap as many oher items in market. Its very geometric, precise and time consuming. Grass woven plates have become very popular worldwide since the South African Interior Designer filled a tall loft wall in a five star boutique hotel with an incredible array at the Saxon Hotel to be seen in another gallery of mine http://visualsenses.smugmug.com/gallery/7539334_QtR23#486174515_7Nouk This design brought him international fame and an international Interior Design Award. Some of the wall haning beaded and woven Zulu Art was photogrphed at the Sabi Sabi Safari Lodge in their public saloons.
The patchwork fabrics that are admired and seen through out South Africa are actually originally from the DRC CONGO many are made of hemp fibre fabrics. They startef out as wall hanging then went into the table runner market and now are used all over the place in ottomans., armchairs and soafa sets. They look good but are somewhat fragile. So to smootch with them as throw pillows is not recommended. When buying one make sure they are not totally dried out as the fibre can become brittle. Hemp has a very long lifespan and is the worlds longest and strongest fibre. You may recall Industrial Hemp was the most grown fibre in the USA till in 1937 Dupont &Neimur created Nylon and Polyester and lobbied the USA government to ban the growing of hemp. Actually in 1943 the USA navy neede more Hemp yard to make ropes for the navy and suddently most big farmers were asked to grow one ha of hemp to support the Navy. I am an advocate mself and have developped muself over 100 different types of Industrial Hemp fabrics in the 80s and early 90s in China and made many garment lines out of them for stores like Target in Australia and Rip Curl and Billabong surf wear as you can see on my design website http://www.visualsenses.com/hemp/ I even dressed Miss Montana in the Miss USA election in a 60% hemp 40% Silk gown in the 90s. South Africa I hear has new industrial Hemp growing developments in some Karoo desert communities. http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98/n799/a10.html?6446